.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
On the forehead of the figure can be seen the remains of a painted flower of the type that was fashionable at the Tang court. Ladies not only rouged their cheeks, they also painted flowers on their faces called hua dian (flowery forehead). Such flowers can be seen on the ladies, dressed in similar style to the current figure, depicted on a painting on silk found at Turfan and now in the Xinjiang Museum. See The Ancient Art in Xinjiang, China, Urumqi, 1994, p. 87, pl. 214.
Although this position with one knee bent and the foot resting against the side of the opposite knee is rare among figures of Tang court ladies, it is frequently seen among the Tang sancai figures of wine sellers, both male and female, holding goose-shaped flagons, Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics (1) Early Wares: Prehistoric to Tenth Century, Taipei, 1991, p. 187, lower right image.
The costume of this figure accords closely with that of the court ladies depicted in the murals that adorn the eastern wall of the front chamber of the Princess Yongtai's tomb, which was excavated in 1960, and illustrated in The Silk Road - Treasures of Tang China, Singapore, Empress Place Museum, 1991, pp. 65-67. The Princess, who was either put to death or commanded to commit suicide by the Empress Wu Zetian, was reinterred with great pomp in AD 706 after Empress Wu's death. The close similarity between the gown of the current sancai seated figure with its high waist, low-cut neckline and narrow sleeves, worn with an elegantly draped shawl and flower-toed shoes, and those of the ladies shown in the mural suggests an early 8th century date may also be ascribed to the ceramic figure. The coiffure of the ceramic figure is also similar to some of those depicted in the mural.
Another figure, very similar in the exquisite modeling and of similar size, but of slightly different model, formerly in the Collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez and the C.C. Wang Family Collection, was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art from the Ferris Luboshez Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, 1972, fig. 32, no. 85 and subsequently sold at Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 1982, lot 57.
See, also, another figure seated on a waisted stool and holding a bird, sold in these rooms, The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang, 21 September 1995, lot 77.
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C298a36 is consistent with the dating of this lot.
Although this position with one knee bent and the foot resting against the side of the opposite knee is rare among figures of Tang court ladies, it is frequently seen among the Tang sancai figures of wine sellers, both male and female, holding goose-shaped flagons, Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics (1) Early Wares: Prehistoric to Tenth Century, Taipei, 1991, p. 187, lower right image.
The costume of this figure accords closely with that of the court ladies depicted in the murals that adorn the eastern wall of the front chamber of the Princess Yongtai's tomb, which was excavated in 1960, and illustrated in The Silk Road - Treasures of Tang China, Singapore, Empress Place Museum, 1991, pp. 65-67. The Princess, who was either put to death or commanded to commit suicide by the Empress Wu Zetian, was reinterred with great pomp in AD 706 after Empress Wu's death. The close similarity between the gown of the current sancai seated figure with its high waist, low-cut neckline and narrow sleeves, worn with an elegantly draped shawl and flower-toed shoes, and those of the ladies shown in the mural suggests an early 8th century date may also be ascribed to the ceramic figure. The coiffure of the ceramic figure is also similar to some of those depicted in the mural.
Another figure, very similar in the exquisite modeling and of similar size, but of slightly different model, formerly in the Collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez and the C.C. Wang Family Collection, was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art from the Ferris Luboshez Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, 1972, fig. 32, no. 85 and subsequently sold at Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 1982, lot 57.
See, also, another figure seated on a waisted stool and holding a bird, sold in these rooms, The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang, 21 September 1995, lot 77.
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C298a36 is consistent with the dating of this lot.